Team Focus: Lyon's Midfield Changes

It would be easy for the city of Lyon to have slumped into a fit of depression of late. Four games into the current season, Les Gones sit second in the table behind the impressive Marseille, however off the pitch it has been nothing but despair. No less than 11 first team players departed the Stade Gerland this summer and the incoming transfers have been few and far between.

For a squad that lacked big game experience last season, the departures of defender Cris, midfielder Kim Kallstrom and goalkeeper Hugo Lloris have left the spine of Remi Garde’s side looking pretty weak. So many games in Ligue 1 are won and lost in the midfield, and as good as Lyon’s start has been with the duo of Gueida Fofana and Maxime Gonalons, you get the sense when it comes to the high intensity matches, this is the area where Garde’s side will come unstuck.

Youth taking over

With an average age of 22, there is no doubt both players have excellent careers ahead, but as a combination they are too similar to make it at the highest level. Both are defensively sound; Gonalons so far this season has averaged 3 tackles per game, 2.3 interceptions and 1.3 clearances. No one in the Lyon side sees more of the ball than Gonalons, making 74 passes per game on average.

Gonalons is the metronome that keeps the Lyon midfield ticking with his 89.9% pass completion rate, but it’s a no frills, consistent and unambitious style, averaging just 0.5 shots on goal per game and dribbling past an opponent once every other game as well. This is where Fofana is meant to come in as the perfect compliment to Gonalons' style; the same style he has shown in the French youth teams and for Le Havre before moving to Lyon. However, when analysing his stats he looks like another Gonalons.

It seems that as much of the ball goes through the 21-year old as it does his midfield partner, with Fofana averaging 69 passes per game at a completion rate of 85.5%. Furthermore, he doesn’t take players on often and, in fact, so far this season, he hasn’t beaten a player once by dribbling past them.  While his 1.5 shots per game show a little bit more forward thinking, a midfield pairing of Gonalons and Fofana still has one problem; creativity. The duo have mustered just one key pass between them this season, and Bafetimbi Gomis and Lisandro Lopez up front will certainly require more from their central midfield as the season goes on, especially with playmaker Yoann Gourcuff out for up to three months.

New arrivals

Remi Garde must have had the same worries about his midfield, as before the transfer window closed Lyon finalised two deals that would bring in players with differing styles of play. The first addition came as a bit of a surprise, as the former Lyon and 32-year old Steed Malbranque signed on a free transfer. His impact was almost instantaneous; against Valenciennes, although at times he looked defensively shaky, the inclusion of Malbranque brought a new dimension to the Lyon midfield when going forward.

Malbranque finished the game with a WhoScored rating of 7.98; hardly the worst second debut. Making 43 passes, three of them key, he also made three successful dribbles, showing that even after a year away from competitive football he still has what it takes to add creativity from deep. Even without Fofana in the side, the midfield didn’t lose any of its bite, with the former Fulham and Sunderland midfielder making four tackles and six interceptions.

Having Malbranque back in the squad looks a great transfer, but it’s not a drastic move forward for Les Gones, and that is why they made further movements in the final hours of the transfer window. That saw the former Rennes and Portsmouth midfielder Arnold Mveumba arrive from FC Lorient. The 27-year old is at the peak of his career and could be the perfect player to push Lyon’s midfield forward.

Last season for Lorient, Mveumba scored four goals and created another four. In Lorient’s 4-4-2 he was the more forward-thinking central midfielder beside the hard-tackling Alexis Romao. Like Gonalons, no one touch the ball more in the Lorient midfield then Mveumba, who averaged 56.1 passes per game with 4.5 accurate long balls per game. Although he doesn’t make as many tackles (only 41 in total last season), he only committed 18 fouls and on only 22 occasions did an opposition player dribble past him. Mveumba’s style is more box to box than Fofana or Malbranque and he could be the perfect partner for Gonalons in the coming season.

Although the Lyon fans would have been sad to see Lloris and Cris leave this week, they will be slightly happier with Malbranque and Mveumba in their midfield. Gonalons and Fofana may be the future of the club but for now Lyon are in a much stronger position with added experience and dynamism in their line-up.